Polls have officially begun for a byelection to fill an empty federal seat in North Vancouver. The North Vancouver-Capilano race is part of a trio of federal byelections happening on Monday, with others taking place in Ontario and Quebec simultaneously.
The seat became available in June when Jonathan Wilkinson, the incumbent Liberal MP, stepped down to assume the role of Canada’s ambassador to the European Union. Wilkinson had held the seat since 2015 and won it comfortably in the previous federal election with 60% of the votes. The Conservatives last claimed victory in this riding in 2011 during Stephen Harper’s majority government reign.
In the current byelection, the Liberal candidate Braeden Caley, who recently served as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s deputy chief of staff, is competing against Stephen Curran, a North Shore lawyer running for the Conservatives for the second time after his 2025 attempt.
Other candidates in the race include Stephen Tweedale from the NDP, Shelley Luce from the Green Party, Ehsan Arjmand representing the People’s Party of Canada, and Independent candidate Jeff Monds. The prominent campaign issues are housing costs and traffic and transportation challenges.
Approximately 16,700 individuals have already cast their votes through advanced polling, according to Elections Canada. In the concurrent byelections today, the Liberals are expected to secure Toronto’s Beaches-East York riding, while the Conservatives are striving to retain Quebec’s Chicoutimi-Le Fjord seat, following a close three-way contest last year.
Presently, the Carney Liberals hold 170 seats in the House of Commons, just two short of a majority, with seven vacant seats and more byelections anticipated in the near future. The House is set to resume its fall session on September 21.